Conan O'Brien's TBS Premiere LIVE Blog

Tonight's the night! At exactly 11:00 p.m. EST on TBS, Conan O'Brien will make his long-awaited return to television after being banned from doing so following his departure from NBC. Tonight's premiere of "Conan" is set to be a special one, featuring Seth Rogan, Lea Michele of "Glee" and musical guest Jack White as well as the winner of Conan's online poll for his first guest (it's looking like Jack Nicholson).

HuffPost Comedy doesn't plan to miss a second of CoCo's big night, so we'll be live blogging the premiere right here! We'll also be live tweeting from @HuffPostComedy, so why not follow us on Twitter? Keep checking back here for updates as the show approaches and see live commentary while the show is happening. We can't wait to see what Team CoCo's been working on all these months!

live blog

So, for now we again say goodbye to Conan. Only this time it won't be so long until we see him again.

We have to get used to hearing Conan ask us to stay tuned for George Lopez - The realization that he's on cable has officially sunk in. And was that really Antoined Dodson in the promo for "Lopez Tonight" immediately following Conan? Ridiculous.

What did you guys think of the show? Did it live up to the hype or leave you wanting more? We'd say it was good mix of the new and the old: we got a little string dance and a little Masturbating Bear. We also got an amazing cold opening and and a moving moon. Speaking of the cold opening, here it is!

Coco's first female guest was pretty impressed with the moving moon and was the first to compliment Conan on his hair. But how about that thud backstage that interrupted them? We were worried that the moon was about to have a gravity malfunction, but Conan brushed it off as another side effect of cable television. Phew!

Conan welcomed his first guest to the show with pleasure despite teasing us for weeks that it could have been someone like Jack Nicholson or The Pope. Did you catch that song? "You're the first guest on Conan! The most important person in historyyyy!"

PopWatch and other blogs had a hunch it would be her. Now on to the REAL first guest: Seth Rogen!

The story of Conan's arrival at TBS was hilarious. It was definitely different from the way he kicked off "The Tonight Show" - A spirited gallivant from coast to coast. Filled with "Godfather" references, a downtrodden post-"Tonight Show" Conan and a severe pay cut, it was a bit jaded but ended on the bright side with Coco's return to late night on cable.

When the man of the hour came out it felt like he had never left. The jump, and the string dance, were immediately resurrected. What a sight for sore eyes!

The monologue was what we expected after Variety's post, but then: Masturbating Bear. He's back! NBC may have taken "The Tonight Show" but M.B. has migrated to TBS.

Spoiler alert! Conan's first monologue has been posted on Variety. It was tweeted by Michael Schneider (@FranklinAvenue) and contains CoCo's introduction to the new show:

"Welcome to my new show, 'Conan.' People ask me why I named the show 'Conan.' I did it so I’d be harder to replace."

He also gives a brief explanation for his NBC departure:

"But the weird thing is this: I put myself and my staff through a lot because I refused to go on at midnight. So I get this job at eleven. Then, yesterday, Daylight Savings Time ended --- so right now it’s basically midnight. In fact, it’s 12:05."

As we wait another 15 minutes for the big premiere, why not take a minute to remember all the reasons we love CoCo besides his show? As Nerve.com puts it, "The creator of Masturbating Bear has other talents." They put this list together of all his accomplishments, from being a role model to making a woman famous via Twitter.

It's almost time folks. Conan will be making his long-overdue comeback to late night television in just under an hour. Twitter has been flooded with chatter about the show and people are getting excited. We have so many questions: Who will his secret first guest be? Will we see the Masturbating Bear? Will he do the string dance? We just have to wait and see.

One of the most interesting tweets in the last few hours came from @Adam_Stabelli and contained a photo of the night's script with a Conan doodle!

Even Taiwan is getting excited for the "Conan" premiere tonight. CGI animation gurus NMA News made this video detailing Conan's departure from NBC and return to TBS, especially focusing on Conan's Masturbating Bear, which is still under copyright by NBC. Will the self-pleasuring bear make it to TBS with Conan?